JUNE 10, 1864:
The Battle of Brice’s
Crossroads:
Far away from Virginia, General Joseph E. Johnston C.S.A.
and General William Tecumseh Sherman U.S.A. are continuing their armed debate
over the ownership of Atlanta. While the Atlanta Campaign has not been a
cakewalk for either side, it has not been another Overland Campaign. Where Lee
is brash, Johnston is cautious. Where Grant is forthright and grasps the nettle,
Sherman is crafty and backs his opponent into a briar patch. Thus, the Atlanta
Campaign has had a few large battles, but it mostly consists of maneuvers which
are pushing Johnston back toward Atlanta. But Sherman has a problem far in his
rear. In Mississippi, General Nathan Bedford Forrest C.S.A. and his
free-ranging cavalry command (his “critter companies”) have been raiding Union
supply depots, cutting telegraph wires, and disrupting Sherman’s rail
connections. Today, Sherman orders 8,000 Union troops led by General Samuel
Sturgis and General Benjamin Grierson to punish Forrest. Forrest’s force
numbers less than 5,000. The two small armies meet at Brice’s Crossroads not
far from Tupelo, Mississippi. The battle, which begins at 9:45 A.M. ends in a
Union rout by 4:00 P.M. The Union loses
2,240 men (1,500 captured), while the Confederates lose 492 overall. Forrest
also seizes a desperately-needed cornucopia of Union supplies including heavy
ordnance: a 3-inch rifled steel gun, three 6-pounder rifled bronze guns, two
4-inch rifled bronze guns, five 6-pounders, two 12-pounders, and three
12-pounder Napoleon guns, along with ammunition, powder, food stocks, small
firearms and bullets, and horses. Forrest is jubilant. Sturgis gets busted to
Colonel and is sent to a quiet frontier post where he fades into obscurity.
The Battle
of Cold Harbor (Day Eleven):
Having finalized his strategy for the
next step of the Overland Campaign, Grant has dispatched troops to cut the
railways, link up with Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley, and link up with
“Beast” Butler, still encamped at The Bermuda Hundred. It is Grant’s plan to
bypass Richmond and fall upon Petersburg. Grant calculates that if he can seize
Petersburg, the gateway and supply depot to Richmond, he can force an end to
the war by month’s end. At first, his plan goes flawlessly. Robert E. Lee is
not even aware that units of The Army of The Potomac are on the move.
